10 Questions With… Dustin Yellin

Inside the studio—a warehouse he renovated down the street from his multidisciplinary art center Pioneer Works—Yellin relies on natural light as well as Ketra lighting by Lutron, merging the day’s fluctuating hues with shades he can tune and control. “Like a fly caught in amber, my works act as a kind of time capsule,” he says. “Instead of hosting fossils, I embed human artifacts, typically images sourced from print media, within in such a way that we, as a species, become the specimen.”   

Read Interior Design’s interview with Yellin about finding the right light and the performative aspect of his sculptures.

Interior Design: The invention of the moving image owes much to lighting. What role does light play in your idea of “frozen cinema,” in other words suspending an image to stillness? 

Dustin Yellin: Goethe once said that “architecture is frozen music.” My use of the term “frozen cinema” is an update to his idea that through pattern, plan, and frame, an artist can breathe narrative into fixed forms. Like architecture, and unlike cinema, sculpture requests the observer to experience art through a body in motion in space and time, which is never constant. In a sense, I employ two forms of scenography; one that is pictorial, while the other relies on an active viewer who becomes their own director scripting encounters with the work in real space and in real time. I find that the difference between stillness and animation is really just a matter of time.   

ID: Could you talk about your relationship with glass as a form of craft and a conceptual medium? 

DY: Glass is a paradoxical medium; it is both strong and fragile while it also attempts to show itself and hide at the same time. Duchamp once said something to the effect that the best art exhibits an ambiguity of experience that is not one thing or the other, but is both one thing, and something else at the same time. To answer in the negative, the only thing I am against conceptually in art is the dichotomy between either/or states of being.  

ID: Light, whether natural or artificial, is critical in an artist’s life in studio, one that even determines the artist’s use of the space. What is your relationship with light from conception of a work to its final form? 

DY: All vision is predicated on light, and yet we often take light for granted. Glass by its very nature does something extortionary to all forms of light: it bends it. And while painting reflects light, glass acts as both a prism and a filter that makes legible how photons move around the work and around us. As an analog, my glass works are more like sensors that allow each viewer, and myself, to build sensitivity to the nature of light itself.    

ID: Why is midday sunlight your favorite? 

DY: Midday’s lack of shadows chips away at the object-hood of glass, transforming it into something more akin to an instrument, whether that be a window, a mirror, or a prism.   

ID: Light lives through a constant shift through movement, similar to your sculptures that invite viewers to rotate around them. How do you orchestrate this sense of mobility for your audience? 

DY: My works have different edge conditions that each provide different ways and moments of seeing the work. As sculpture exists in four dimensions, the act of the observer moving around and through these different conditions allows a suit of shifting views that merge, develop, and emerge yet again out of these situations and their borders. This movement allows the work to always be in a state of “becoming.”  

ID: Exhibiting Psychogeographies in spaces associated with dance creates an interesting contrast between movement and stillness. Could you talk about your projects for Lincoln Center in New York and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. through this aspect? 

DY: There is an adage that the rests between notes give music its soul. Movement and stillness are already wed, just as darkness is to light. Each defines and clarifies the other; without one there cannot be the other. Jung mentioned that the human condition is one of duality, and that art is the expression par excellence of this reality.  

ID: Psychogeographies consists of paintings and sculptures. How do you see these play with dimensionality? 

DY: Since the Renaissance, Western art developed a form of painterly perspective based on foreshortening and geometry. The Modernists countered this illusion by flatlining the picture plane to assert the flatness of the canvas. Instead of seeing these two modes as antithetical, I mix both together so that the shift between each technique produces a “3rd depth”.  As my works are three dimensional objects comprised ostensibly of sets of layered picture plains, I also move along the z-axis through these plains to provide a further play of depth through the relation between classical perspective and scale in real space.  

ID: Scale is another critical element, almost similar to miniature art in which minuscule elements build a narrative altogether. Can you share a bit about your process of using small bits to form larger narratives? 

DY: Each work is a microcosm in which the individual parts never lose their own unique identity. They also work together as a community of images to produce a larger systemic image at the same time.  

ID: You create work-on-paper studies of your sculptures but also use paper bits inside the works. Could you talk about your relationship with paper?  

DY: Since the beginning of time, people have made marks to record their existence. These marks endure and circulate long after as a collection of shared experience. There are many words for this greater body of knowledge, be it consciousness or culture. In a sense, I feel that I tap into this long conversation by sourcing other people’s marks, and then reconfiguring these items with mark-making of my own. By preserving these histories in glass, I can sustain that long conversation.  

ID: Pioneer Works is a space that proves the multimedia direction art-making has evolved into in recent years. Many artists and designers refuse categorization of their practices. How do you see the center’s impact on your work and vice versa? 

DY: Pioneer Works is a “museum of process” in which we support the continual development of all disciplines and practices through experimentation and production. I feel that as we support others, we advance ourselves. Pioneer Works is my life practice; they are one and the same.  

BuzziSpace Unveils a Lighting Fixture in the Shape of a Potato Chip

No sad desk salads here. Acoustics-product company BuzziSpace introduces BuzziChip, a pendant fixture that takes its shape from the curvature of that popular office snack: a Pringles potato chip. It’s 2½-inch thickness means maximum noise control while the small but powerful LED emits a soft glow. Also new is BuzziPleat Edel Long, a rectangular form of the company’s sartorial Pleat series. It can be wall-mounted or suspended from the ceiling and is particularly attractive staggered at different heights. The hand-pleated folds trap low and mid tones and help to halt sound waves bouncing around on hard sufaces.

Striking Furnishings and Installations on Display During Milan Design Week

These talented pairs debuted bold patterns and hues during Milan Design Week.

Front Design

Sofia Lagerkvist and Anna Lindgren’s Serpentine chandeliers for Moooi.

MDF Wraps Year 2 of Showcasing Contemporary Mexican Design in Surf Mecca Puerto Escondido

Many in the A&D community are familiar with Design Week Mexico, the annual program of events and exhibitions throughout Mexico City launched in 2009. But last year, a new platform emerged in a less urban but no less authentic setting: Mexico Design Fair in Puerto Escondido, a surfing mecca on the Pacific Coast of Oaxaca. Presenting furniture and objects from such Latin American–focused galleries as Casa Gutiérrez Nájera, La Invencible, and Marion Friedmann, MDF took place in Casa Naila, a house by BAAQ’, with the mission of “being an accelerator of the discipline from Mexico and to strengthen the position of contemporary design—especially Mexican design—globally through an invitation-only, weekend-long intimate travel experience,” founder, curator, and architect Carlos Torre Hütt explains.

Edition two, which wrapped at the end of May, expanded to a second location, Casa Tiny by architect Aranza de Ariño, which is also where the Rimowa-sponsored MDF Designer of the Year Award was presented to industrial designer José de la O. Both seaside sites, along with the exhibited pieces, centered on low environmental impact—the naturally ventilated houses constructed of native woods and the furnishings composed of vegetable fibers, such as Edgar Orlaineta’s wicker Faces chairs, or upcycled materials, like Thierry Jeannot’s TEOTL lamp of recycled PET bottles. Additionally, guest collectors were hosted at Federico Rivera Río Arquitectura’s Hotel Escondido, crafted of indigenous thatched roofs, Central American hardwood, and local stone. MDF edition three is scheduled for May 19-21, 2023.

8 Standout Products Spotted During Milan Design Week

These products invite us to employ the imagination, from Laura Bohinc’s curvaceous forms to a gravity-defying pendant by Ferruccio Laviani.

Crochet Trio by Clara von Zweigbergk for Gan

Cheery color blocks by the Swedish designer pattern oval rugs stitched together into a long runner, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with crocheted wool fibers.

Big Girl by Laura Bohinc of Bohinc Studio

Curvaceous and cosseting yet bold and adventurous, the foam-padded forms of the scarlet wool-upholstered armchair clasp the body of its inhabitant in the warmest embrace.

Cleo by Vincent Van Duysen for Molteni&C

Want to vege out in syle? The curvilinear shell of this modular sectional with loose pillows looks good from all angles—place it in the center of a room for maximum impact.

Twins by Sebastian Herkner for Emu

The two pieces in this lounge chair set look alike, but their materials are different: One is FSC-certified teak; the other incorporates Emu’s signature aluminum with the wood.

Flair by Gabriele and Oscar Buratti for Gervasoni

Talk about two in one: The outdoor sofa has double-hinged back and armrest modules that can be folded over for a low profile or unfolded for double height.

Tonda by Ferruccio Laviani for Foscarini

The gravity-defying pendant fixture channels Italian Radical Design of the early 1970’s through a blown-glass globe held by a sinuous orbit of an orange metal frame.

Loop by Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby for VG&P and Isokon

A quarter century after the debut of their iconic plywood Loop table, the Barber Osgerby cofounders release a blue-tinted anniversary edition.

Kigi by Junpei and Iori Tamaki for Living Divani

8 Designer Débuts At Copenhagen’s 3daysofdesign Festival

Denmark’s annual design event has continued to grow since its beginnings in 2013. This year, over 200 exhibitions fanned out across the capital’s showrooms, shops, streets, and museums from June 15-17.

Welcoming visitors, a graphic identity by Luca Nichetto of Nichetto Studio featured visuals alluding to iconic Danish design, local gastronomic specialties, and architectural landmarks, gently chiding all to “Remember to Play.”

Pavilion by Fritz Hansen

Fritz Hansen, celebrating 150 years, won the fair’s best exhibition award. The furniture, lighting, and accessories brand marked the anniversary with an impressive pavilion designed by architects Henning Larsen and set in the garden of the freshly-reopened Designmuseum Denmark. Post-exhibition, the sustainable wood structure will be disassembled and re-sited at the brand’s headquarters north of Copenhagen.

Happy Hook by Jaime Hayon for Fritz Hansen

A joyful new offering from Spanish designer Jaime Hayon, the Happy Hook is a purposeful-yet-playful wall-mounted hanger in solid brass and shaped with a smiling face, a reference to Hayon’s signature street tag from his youth. Available in September, the hook’s finish will patinate over time to a blue-green hue.

Tabata by Luca Nichetto for &Tradition

The brand’s Head of Design, Els Van Hoorebeeck, tapped the Stockholm-based Italian designer to bring his signature style to a lighthearted-yet-refined indoor wall lamp. Made from cast aluminum, the powder-coated fixture has a textured surface and comes in sophisticated black, subtle silk grey, and luscious dark burgundy. A frosted acrylic diffuser softens the light output. 

Sobremesa by Laila Gohar for Hay 

The stylish brand founded by Mette and Rolf Hay celebrates 20 years. An upcoming collection of kitchen and tabletop accessories by Egyptian-born and New York City-based artist and chef Laila Gohar, dubbed Sobremesa, previewed during the festival. Standouts include a whimsical striped cookie jar, cheeky embroidered table linens, and a squat painted bean pot, all debuting in stores this autumn. Gohar says, “All of the items together create an extension of my own world. I approach them as a little fantasy or dream.” The pieces promote the joy of hosting and connecting people over the table.

Beetle in 3D Veneer by GamFratesi for Gubi

First introduced in 2013 by Danish-Italian architect duo Stine Gam and Enrico Fratesi, the Beetle chair secured a cameo in the 2019 film “Always be My Maybe.” Now with a material makeover in 3D veneer, its shell even more closely mimics its insect inspiration. GamFratesi notes, “The design language of the Beetle chair lends itself to be rendered in wood, which underscores its ‘inspired by nature’ story.” The molded wooden shell comes in oak or American walnut.

Ta-Ke by Michael Anastassiades at Anker & Co.

The London-based designer presented a family of floor lamps dubbed Ta-ke crafted of natural waxed bamboo poles atop powder-coated steel bases. Delicate wire springs hold a custom-built, self-powdered linear bulb of opaline borosilicate glass with integrated LED. “I have always been intrigued by bamboo as a material and by its ability to grow in an almost perfectly straight line. I am fascinated by the thought of using it in exactly the way it grows naturally by simply cutting it at the moment it reaches its required diameter. I love the idea that I could use it without any industrial processing, by simply defining a series of parameters to determine my selection and cutting process. The project is essentially an exercise of negotiation with nature,” said Anastassiades.

Soft Colors by Ilse Crawford for CH24 Wishbone Chair from Carl Hansen & Søn

The company tapped London-based designer Ilse Crawford to develop nine new colors for the frame of Hans J. Wegner’s iconic CH24 chair, known as the Wishbone and produced continuously for over 70 years. Inspired by the natural Nordic elements found in paintings by Danish artist Per Kirkeby, the hues include Hollyhock, Terracotta, and evocative North Sea, all applied in a soft matte finish. “Colors are so closely related to our emotions and our mood,” Crawford says, “and we believe that these subdued tones will help create a warm, relaxed and natural environment.”

Nendo Collection by Oki Sato for Georg Jensen

The heritage brand founded in 1904 builds on its existing collection with Japanese designer Oki Sato of Nendo with organic-shaped candleholders and stainless steel versions of vases previously offered only in silver. Their forms inspired by nature, each Nendo vase also doubles as a carafe due to a clever integrated spout. Shown as a sneak peek, the collection will be available in November.

Tubby Tube by Faye Toogood for Please Wait To Be Seated

An installation of archival collaborations between the London-based designer and the Danish design brand included the highly-recognizable Spade chair plus Tubby Tube stools and tables. Adding to the array, a new linear pendant also dubbed Tubby Tube was launched. Presented in a room softened by fabric sculptures and a painted curtain wall, the fixtures stand out for their streamlined rigor.

10 Questions With… Chris Wolston

The Nalgonas, which reflect Wolston’s design lexicon, is a series of hefty rattan seats with limbs sprouting from their various corners. Playful and bodily, they poke at the notions of gender, performance, camp, and familiarity, all while breathing an alternative life to a material tightly connected to Colombia through agriculture and history. 

While Wolston presents his work with The Future Perfect gallery through solo shows and fairs like Design Miami/ and Salone, he works from a Medellín studio in a century-old neighborhood with an eclectic architecture that mixes those heydays with modern buildings. Both inside his blue-painted workplace and out in a backyard, he collaborates with local artisans to create wicker furniture, as well as ceramics in a warehouse next door. “Mother Nature Pachamama is very present here,” he says about his life between the studio and a house up in the mountains. “There is a dynamic landscape between the city and the mountainside—we are in the city of eternal spring here.”

Interior Design: Wicker is a transatlantic material, with a history that spans Africa, Asia, Americas, and Europe. How does such a culturally-layered material inform your practice? 

Chris Wolston: To think materials can connect us with various cultures and civilizations is fascinating, and this is true for archeological ceramics or woven basketry. Although woven baskets haven’t survived archeologically in the same way ceramics have, they always had a place and time in history. Materials and techniques shift a bit, but rattan and the wicker technique have existed in various parts of the world. Europe, for example, has a long history of wicker weaving with willow and different species of reed. Speaking this location and Colombia, wicker material comes from yare which is a natural vine harvested by indigenous communities .

I should note that the style of weaving that we use at the studio for furniture-making is just one of many. A lot of the furniture made with this material is basically sofas that go outdoors next to the pool, so aesthetically not everything is so perfected. Working with the master craftspeople is an interesting process because of the opportunity to push the technique to more developed aesthetic directions and create an alternative to what is largely available.  

ID: How is your relationship with this material in terms of a learning process? Given its history and potential in use, is this an unending education?

CW: My practice has actually developed out of this very reason, through a personal exploration of the material with new techniques. As a foreigner living here, for instance, this has also been an exploration of the place. There are so many different ways to work with materials, and part of my practice is really based around exploration, even maybe obsessively. This could be about how to use the aluminum in a in a new way or push wicker to new directions.

ID: How does your collaboration with local artisans and craftspeople guide this journey?

CW: Medellín is interesting because we have the studio where we create the majority of the work, and a lot of that work involves artisans from small scale studios nearby. For example, the aluminum foundry I work with is just down the street or the polisher is around the corner. This proximity to material mastery in a localized area is fascinating, especially if we are talking about learning further on materials and develop ideas around them. I’d call here a material paradise. In a city like New York, resources are probably within the tri-state area but actually gaining access to people and materials is pretty impossible. Here, we are in a seamless flow.

ID: Let’s talk about the humanoid element of your chairs and light fixtures. There is a boldness in your direct reference to the body. How did you develop this signature silhouette?

CW: I was working at the aluminum foundry for the tables, and I became interested in how fleshy the surface of thin cast aluminum looked. I created a series of tables that had different humanoid forms as a way to bring out that element of materiality. As someone whose studio practice is developed out of research, I am obsessed about how materials are applied in these industrial scenarios and figuring out new ways of applying those techniques. I’ve always been interested in furniture as sort of a media. Because it’s relational and so unpretentious, everybody has a certain level of intimacy with their furniture, or they’re able to interact with them in a way that is natural. For me, creating furniture is similar to making relational sculptures. One of the elements think often is this human relationship with materials. It is funny that the chairs have emerged as these very human forms that embrace the sitters. My intention in applying this materiality to the forms was also to create something tactile that calls for a physical connection.

ID: There is an element of surreality in your rendition of limbs in various forms, hugging or zigzagging. Could you talk about your interest in Surrealism and Dalí?

CW: Before I put together my last collection, I had visited the Dalí Museum and the Miro Foundation, in Barcelona. I think that humor and abstraction can be an entry point for people to have a better connection with the materiality, so a lot of my work has an element of humor. That allows people to connect with the work and their material and have a more personal experience.

ID: How about the furniture’s genderless-ness? The objects are bodies without distinct markers of any sex or gender.

CW: Everybody is into what they’re into. I see Nalgona chairs as [masculine] but other people will refer to them in other genders that aren’t at the forefront of my mind, and I think that’s great. The idea is that the furniture lets people have an entry point to have their own experience. This shows the variation in perspective. Living between New York and Medellín, the variation in perspectives is very clear, and I find it important to acknowledge that we all do have different perspectives on the body and its expressions. 

ID: Could you talk about the invitation for performance? A chair with limbs prompts the sitter to engage with furniture in ways that are beyond the typical ritual of using a seat—the user’s body must react to the body referenced in the chair.

CW: The work is an exploration into cultural context. But instead of presenting it in a really formal way, I find humorous presentations which I think is actually more unpretentious and accessible to all.

ID: You also achieve this access with the photography and activate furniture with models.

CW: I work with photographer David Sierra who is a fashion photographer. A lot of the time, the pieces are photographed in a fashion-oriented way or we have even done short films. Furniture in some ways has similarities to fashion: they are materials that humans interact with. Therefore, I am interested in showing how models interact with the forms with a nod to high fashion. This way, there is a story beyond just the object itself—a narrative. David is such an incredible photographer who gives a dimensionality to the furniture. Here in the studio, there are so many stories, different people, and various processes that it’s nice to create a story and context for that work. The photography is not necessarily telling the story of the making, but create a narrative that the pieces can live in.

ID: Craft has been a primary tool for queer artists and designers for challenging the status quo on valuation of labor, questioning the hierarchies of making, and emphasizing the process over the finished material. How do you see this social side of being engaged with craft today?

CW: Craft is egalitarian—especially as we previously talked about the unpretentious and accessible nature of the work. Looking at ancient traditions in Southeast Asia, Europe, or the Middle East, these materials and techniques have been used throughout humanity. Clay, weaving traditions, stone, or wood carving—for all, craft is the universal mastery of the technique without added interpretation of a concept, ego or other elements. On a pure level, craft is human interaction with materials. Looking at gender and identity, as well as the exploration of new frontiers within these genres, craft is a really interesting entry point because it doesn’t necessarily have a definitive set of rules. Rather, it is more about exploration and discovery.

ID: Has your recent tapestry work at New York’s Emma Scully Gallery come out of a similar experimentation with the material? Have you been in search of new directions and textures?

CW: The two carpets in Anti Chairs are parts of a larger series, which are based on abstract oil pastel drawings I created with inspiration from the native bird species in my garden—think of tropical birds in bright colors. This was a personal exploration of abstractionist aesthetic, and later, I worked with a team in Chimichagua which is a town famous for its grass carpets. I had been interested in this weaving technique for some time, so I gave different weaving studios in this town the same drawing, with specifications on the dimension and the dyes but left interpretations of the drawing to the each weaver. When the carpets came back, the results were fascinatingly different although there was still a clear similarity within them. This was an exploration of subjectivity and objectivity in weaving and the role of the personal perspective.

9 Show-Stopping Installations Seen at Milan Design Week 2022

There is a trick to quickly erecting a temporary destination that seduces the design community during Milan Design Week—and wow-factor is a must. At Alcova, the offsite exhibition which took place for the second time in an abandoned nunnery and military hospital, several installations shined, taking advantage of an abundance of space and the decayed elegance that only comes from derelict structures. In the Brera district, La Palota, a former sports venue beckoned with lofty ceilings. And why not add a famous villa to the mix? From a kitchen installation at a location of a recent crime drama to a portal of natural and semi-precious stone to a colorful sphere-filled sound studio, here are nine of our favorite installations from Milan Design Week 2022.

1.  A Statement of Form by Gaggenau

The luxurious Italian villa seen in “House of Gucci,” a recent crime drama inspired by true events directed by Ridley Scott, dominated Instagram feeds this Milan Design Week. Completed by architect Piero Portaluppi in 1935, the Villa Necchi Campiglio an estate with private garden, swimming pool, and tennis court, is the beautiful home of the Necchi family. A slice of verdant oasis in the center of Milan, it has long been a seductive and coveted party venue.

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This year, the villa hosted “A Statement of Form,” a sleek kitchen installation by kitchen manufacturer Gaggenau, in collaboration with Munich-based architecture firm 1zu33 and its founder Hendrik Müller, with contributions by marble expert Salvatori (behind a stacked marble centerpiece) and ceramic specialist Kaufmann (maker of the tiles). 

2. “Monumental Wonders,”  by SolidNature

At Alcova, nine different types (and colors) of onyx composed the dramatic entry portal to “Monumental Wonders,” presented by SolidNature. Demonstrating what is possible upon breaking the perceived boundaries of designing with natural and semi-precious stone, the installation commandeered five rooms at Alcova’s Lavanderia building and highlighted creative use beyond raw marble block—think stone dust and off-cuts—with a series of monumental commissioned pieces. 

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Architecture firm OMA, headed up by principals Ellen van Loon and Giulio Margheri, designed the stone-wrapped doorway as well as a rotating cabinet doubling as a movable wall and a bed tucking away a hidden table and storage space (both made of marble and onyx). 

A dazzling bathroom built entirely of pink onyx by Dutch designer Sabine Marcelis took center stage. The 360-degree free-standing sculpture showcased an apt merger of form and function while an internal glow drew attention to the natural veins and raw beauty of the stone.

3. “Silentscape” by Isabella Del Grandi for Slalom

Within the soothing embrace of “Silentscape,” a colorful sound studio installation by Isabella Del Grandi at Alcova, the chatter of voices—and the bustle of Milan Design Week—dropped away.

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Exploring, with texture and material, the acoustical sound absorbing possibilities available from acoustic system manufacturer Slalom, Del Grandi clad walls in soft surfacing material and dangled round upholstered spheres from the ceiling—these slowly swayed as mellow music played.

4. Houses by Charlotte Macaux Perelman for Hermès

A luminous installation of ash wood and translucent colored paper houses featured items for the home from Hermès. 

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Inspired by water towers, the one-room stand-alone geometric structures glowed like lanterns at venue La Palota, a spacious former sports center benefited by sky-high ceilings and accommodating up to 1,200 people. Charlotte Macaux Perelman, the artistic director of Hermès Maison who conceived similar displays for the luxury fashion brand for previous Milan Design Weeks, was behind the design. As visitors traversed through, they discovered six new fabric designs, all made of cashmere. 

5. See the Stars Again by Flos

As a soothing voice talked about the future, Arco K, an anniversary version of the iconic Arco lamp by Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni spun around in a slow wide circle while surrounded by raw white stone and set within pristine white walls. Part of “See the Stars Again” a temporary destination conceived to highlight 14 new product launches by lighting manufacturer Flos, the eye-catching presentation offered visitors a close up look at the lamp’s lead-free crystal base, which exposes its inner mechanics. Curated by Calvi Brambilla and held at the 65,000-square-foot former factory Fabbrica Orobia, the installation also included sculptural displays, indoor gardens, and projections of animals.

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6. “Divine Inspiration” by Lee Broom

Taking centuries-old display know-how from religious places of worship, Lee Broom launched six lighting collections and 30 new products in “Divine Inspiration.” The British lighting designer’s largest initiative yet for Milan Design Week was set in a gallery, within a warren of rooms—each with its own curated lighting product display and unique mood.

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Among the limited edition hand-sculpted pieces in the Requiem collection, a seemingly beautifully and artistically broken pendant light is a showstopper. 

7. Weaving by Amine El Gotaibi for Beni Rugs

A ceiling-mounted 300-pound weaving by Moroccan artist Amine El Gotaibi set the stage for Spoken Lines, a collection of 10 rugs by Colin King for Beni Rugs unveiled at Alcova.

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Made of nearly 80 feet of natural wool, the site-specific artwork was woven in part by a cooperative of female weavers in Morocco—who weave all of the company’s rugs—and took four weeks to create. 

8. Caffè Populaire by Lambert & Fils and DWA Design Studio

Aperitivo opportunities abound during Milan Design Week, but the truly special ones take place in temporary venues built entirely for the occasion. Set on the grounds surrounding and within an indoor-outdoor temple dating back to the 1930s at Alcova, the second edition of Caffè Populaire was an aperitivo garden presented by Lambert & Fils and DWA Design Studio. Water flowed amidst sculptural lighting (from Lambert & Fils) and flowered wallpaper (by New York-based wallpaper studio Superflower) and plantings of wildflowers and grass.

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Focusing on the senses, the installation included an elevated interior garden—a central table planted with wild flowers—and a water sculpture. Throughout, the Brutalist, tower-like forms of the Silo lighting collection by Lambert & Fils juxtaposed with Florescence, a wallpaper collection by Superflower with hyperrealistic flower imagery taking cues from Japan’s Edo period Ikebana (art of flower arrangement) and 19th century Victorian patterns. 

9. “Holotype” by Refractory

The scent of turmeric wafted through the air at “Holotype,” presented by the freshly launched Chicago-based furniture brand Refractory and held in the E/Spacebuilding, a new attic and adjacent terrace location at Alcova. The spice was both heaped on the ground and sprayed on the concrete walls – tinting them orange. This unique backdrop for Refractory’s artisanal consoles, dining tables, occasional tables, benches, lighting, and objects in materials ranging from cast bronze to solid black walnut was joined by paleontological specimens and imagery of America’s West, in collaboration with Sarah Wilson, co-founder of Go-Valley, a Texas-based production company.

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New Zealand’s Fresh, Contemporary Design Scene Takes the Spotlight

Want to take a gander at a design market that hasn’t yet over-saturated Instagram feeds? Fresh from the antipodes, it’s the New Zealand Design Pavilion, open to the trade and public now until July 1 in Shack 15 at San Francisco’s iconic Ferry Building. 

Six Kiwi manufacturers—Resident, Citta, James Dunlop Textiles, David Trubridge, Noho, and Nodi—have banded together to showcase an assortment of their furniture, lighting, flooring, and textiles. Together, the wares highlight the nation’s unique perspective: clean of line with a focus on natural materials, not dissimilar to Japanese and Scandinavian design but with a marked casual, laid-back effortlessness. 

The New Zealand Design Pavilion marks the first independent exhibition of foreign homeware design in the country since the pandemic scuppered travel, and the most comprehensive showing of New Zealand design in the U.S. in modern history. Designed in partnership with creative agency Aditions, the 7,500-square-foot exhibition references common elements that are a through-line through much of New Zealand’s design ouput, whether it be the architecture of Fearon Hay or the modernism of the late Maori architect Rewi Thompson. 

The importance of the natural world and protecting that through sustainable design shines through as does love for the sensory qualities of the country’s coastal, forest, and alpine landscapes. New Zealand’s daylight is inimitably bright, standing in stark contrast to Europe and North America’s warmer glow (maybe blame the nearby hole in the ozone layer?). That light picks out detail with such clarity that any over-the-top embellishments or maximalist frenzy tends to look garish. (“I remember taking fabric samples back from overseas and they looked completely different, far too saturated!” recalls Mokum design director Stephanie Moffitt of the phenomenon.) That perhaps goes some way to explaining the natural drive of New Zealand design with its focus on elemental materials such as wood and concrete and its often sober details. It’s an aesthetic that translates with alacrity, however. “We all have much more in common than we think, and so this New Zealand Design Pavilion represents the power of our collective lens on the world,” says Resident co-founder Scott Bridgens. “The light is different down here, and through this initiative we aim to illuminate our creativity and ingenuity, and most importantly, share it with others.”

10 Questions With… Katharina Kaminski and Rodrigo García

The sculptor and model Katharina Kaminski created her light sculptures, which also function as candle holders, during a life-changing discovery. The Uruguay- and Paris-based ceramicist received her genetic test results that confirm she was born intersex while working on a series of bulbous bodily forms. In the meantime, Kaminski continued to hand-pour clay for her sculptures at a foundry in France’s perfume capital Grasse. “I try to follow the clay with an authentic clear energetic intention that transforms itself as the work begins to come alive—I feel the clay, I feel myself, and creation happens,” she tells Interior Design.

The series, aptly titled Luminous Beings, came out of a collaboration with Kaminski’s life partner and Amen Candles founder Rodrigo García to bring the element of light into her work. “The series has empowered me to tap into my truth, to connect with a vision of self that is not adopted from others, but one that is mine and more compassionate with myself,” she adds. Referencing the body in gentle poetic ways, the light sculptures “opened a new chapter in my life,” Kaminski says. In the last year, they’ve been on view at Design Miami/ fair, Bergdorf Goodman, and Dover Street Market in Paris. 

“They encourage forward thinking, authenticity, innocence, pride, a sensuality much rooted in the earth and a high directed spirit,” Kaminski adds. “They brought to surface a version of myself that was deep inside and hopefully they can inspire others on their journey.” While the artist is currently working on large versions of the series as well as experimenting with bronze, marble, and stone, Amen Candles is expanding the light sculptures and their Luz candles in July with new scents, such as eucalyptus, vetiver and ginger, in addition to existing rose and sandalwood. In the fall, new sculptural forms will be added to the series, as well.  

Interior Design talked to Kaminski and García about activating sculptures with scents and light, as well as creating with a mission to stand up for an under-represented community in the design world. 

Interior Design: Could you talk about the journey of your personal and professional unities? How do both relationships feed each other?

Katharina Kaminski: When we first met we would always connect through dreams, goals and visions, and as a couple those got intersected to create a life together. Creating together is a big part of our relationship. We understand each other beyond words and our qualities complement each other very well. We have that creative chemistry—and to me, that’s a huge turn on!

Rodrigo García: The answer to the question in one word would be: organic. For example, the very initial spark idea of light sculptures started by us having outdoor dinners in nature and seeing that classic candles would turn off by the wind, and it was just an idea. Then Katharina started creating a concept which became a challenge of making the empty space the soul of the sculpture instead of the classical approach of the external form. Like holes in Lucio Fontana’s paintings or silence in music compositions, Katharina dominated the empty space. The empty space becomes alive with inner light, becomes a luminous being.

ID: A candle and design object tap into different sensual experiences, smelling and seeing respectively. What type of connections do you see between scents and a design aesthetic?

RG: It is not about a scent, a visual aesthetic or a sound, it is about the feeling that those stimulus generate on us. Whether by smelling a scented candle or by contemplating the light of a light sculpture, the idea is bring us to now, to be present. That is my philosophy of design, it is about designing experiences, instead of just products of design.

It is about bringing harmony, calm, and being present in the moment. I feel candles’ fire light brings us peace. And specially with scent, when we are smelling an aroma, we are not thinking of something else. Luminous Beings connects this in a synesthetic new experience of sculpture, which is the visual art that operates in three dimensions, into a new dimension of light sculptures with scents—they become a fourth dimension experienced when the observer lights the scented candle. Changing at every instant with the observer’s perspective, they become Luminous Beings. It is a meditative experience of time, light, and space, and of course, fragrance.

ID: Intersex community has been underrepresented in the art and design world. Has this been changing? Could you talk about your experience?

KK: Intersex community has been underrepresented in not just the art and design world—it has been underrepresented, stigmatized and forbidden subject by parents, doctors and the whole system. I am optimistic that we are in a much more open-minded place as society and it is generally more welcome to talk about it. In my experience, I still feel not everyone is comfortable with this topic but I feel happy that I can help a little by opening the conversation on intersexuality and that many people are happy to learn about it. Many are surprised to first find about a condition present in same percentage of humans as redheads that they never heard about before. 

Silence creates taboo, taboo creates trauma and nobody deserves none of that! Expressing, sharing, coming together can be very healing. I dream of a future where kids that are born intersex are not stigmatized and parents are properly educated, guided, and supported.

ID: How does modeling and the fashion world inspire your design practice? Do you find yourself connecting the two worlds?

KK: I feel that connection of worlds in this context would be me, Katharina Kaminski, my spiritual path and the balance of energies that both professions give me. Modeling has been the greatest university of life for me. I find it very enriching and exciting to have a profession that requires me to be open to unexpected adventures and meet new creative people all the time. I find inspiration and growth in all the people, places, and new situations along the journey. In modeling I have learned to embody an energy, to use my physicality to express something, which connects with being a sculptor who models clay. The big difference with modeling and making art is that modeling jobs choose me, while I get to choose myself when I create. I find that very powerful because I get to explore the depths of being myself as it comes and express myself more profoundly. It’s a journey that feels more natural to my most authentic self. At this point of my life, I feel very grateful to be able to explore both facets of mine and evolve in them and through each other. 

ID: Your forms defy any gender connotation while paying homage to bodily curves. How do you balance this duality of capturing an alternative corporeality?

KK: The balance of the duality is my inner process and an alternative corporeality was an unconscious seek for new perspectives and to celebrate the infinite human experience. The only way to capture this is to be in that meditative creative space that allows my truth to be expressed. That is the beauty of art to me.

ID: Luminous Beings is about the immaterial through the material experiences of scents and sculpture. Could you talk about encapsulating ephemerality through sculpture?

KK: I see my creative process as a physical manifestation of whats going on inside me, that takes form in space, translating what I can not express in no other way than with art.

ID: The light sculptures are also about discovery. They invite the viewer to look inside their hollow parts and notice different curves. What do you think about crafting this ritual for viewer through your work?

KK: If you look around you will never find angles in nature: in nature everything is curved. Angles are men-made and so is the binary norm. Not everyone is born in this norm, nature is infinite. I hope curves inspire for a world with more openness, understanding, harmony and love.

A luminous being for me means someone that enlightens you with their presence. The collection of lit clay sculptures embodies a universe free of limits, where life is celebrated for its infinite unique forms of expression.

ID: What about the element of light? The sculptures gain a new depth with light stemming from their bellies. How critical was the presence of light in your design?

KK: I love the challenge of shaping the way the light comes out of my sculptures, specially a candle light which is the element of fire—it has life and it moves, giving the light a form. I personally love the ritual of turning the candle light on in the sculpture. I invite the observer to become a participant of the creative process when lighting the fire and changing the form of the light with each perspective.

ID: Could you talk about your studio life in Uruguay?

KK: In Uruguay is where I have my studio and where I am creating everyday, being in nature helps me to be peaceful to create with intention. When I am in Paris, it’s more a balance of modeling work, creating and planning where the work is going to be shared—the more “yang” part of being an artist. But the truth is, I travel with my tools everywhere and I create from anywhere. I have lots of experience in the nomad life.

RG: Both of us spending a long time in nature in Uruguay allow us to connect with nature and express that in our philosophy of design. My philosophy of design is to think always more than sustainable design, to think on how nature would do it on every aspect of it from the scents—[to make] the eucalyptus scent just like eucalyptus is in nature—or when it comes to packing, we wouldn’t use a plastic styrofoam packaging, so lets look for a biodegradable mushrooms mycelium packaging. Being in Uruguay also helps to remain authentic, and instead of being influenced by trends or what others are doing, it allows to create unique and authentic design with purpose.

ID: How about Paris? After the isolation of Uruguay, does the city’s chaos and energy inspire you?

RG: Paris is great for launching and sharing new collections to our community of creative friends, feel the feedback, and share our purpose. Since the beginning of Amen Candles in 2020, I love to launch new concepts at Dover Street Parfums Market because there is a great community of designers and creatives that are very open minded to share the purpose behind our concepts. For example, when we were about to launch our mushrooms packaging some buyers would say we need to add a gold or a ribbon on it, while at DSPM we had carte blanche to creativity. Same goes for sharing our Luminous Beings collaboration with Katharina and to be speaking about intersex awareness and celebrating the infinite human experience, Paris is now the right moment and right place to share our purpose, to start a conversation, which is our intention, is not about product, but is about objects of design that begin conversations.